Selects: Sacagawea: Impressive Teen

Josh Clark (0:00)

Hey, everybody, it's me, Josh. And for this week's Select, I've chosen our 2021 episode on Sacagawea, whose name I learned to pronounce correctly after 45 years on the planet in this very episode.

She's one of those figures in American history who's been morphed into more of a folk legend than a real life person. And I think that's because we round out the contours of historic people so we can teach young kids about them, and that after a while that kidified version is all they become in everyone's mind.

So, like anyone, there's a lot more to Sacagawea than the average person realizes. But what's most amazing is that we actually know a lot of that stuff about her. It's amazing because not only was she a Native American living at the beginning of the 19th century on the Great Plains, but she was a teenager and a girl. And yet, we know a bunch about her, and what we know adds up to a pretty great person. That's why we named this episode Impressive Teen. Hope you're impressed by her too.

SPEAKER_2 (1:02)

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.

Josh Clark (1:11)

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's over there, and this is Stuff You Should Know.

I can't help but feel that I'm being subtweeted right now. What for?

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (1:23)

I don't know what that means.

Josh Clark (1:25)

Oh, it's where you talk about somebody without directly talking about them. You just kind of maybe talk about their behavior or how you disapprove of something that they did, but you don't directly say, this person did this and I don't like it.

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (1:39)

You know, one time, I don't know all this lingo with the Twitter because I was never on it, and I was e-mailing with Jonathan Colton, musician, Jonathan Colton about coming on Movie Crush. And I can't remember what I said, but he said, something, something, don't at me. And I didn't know what that meant. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I'm not sure what I did.

I don't know. I apologize if I did something wrong. And I think he was kind of like, who is this idiot?

Josh Clark (2:09)

Hodgman likes this guy.

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (2:11)

And I think don't at, I mean, doesn't that just mean you're tagging someone on Twitter or something?

Josh Clark (2:16)

But usually, it means like you're telling them that they got something wrong or you disagree with what they said, or they should be ashamed of what they said. It's usually a hostile thing that you're adding somebody. Or you're, yeah, they don't, they're, they have made their point and they don't want to hear any feedback from you about it. That's what that means.

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (2:34)

That's kind of what I took from it.

Josh Clark (2:35)

And you have to like kind of snap a few times when you say it.

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (2:40)

I'm just really so thankful still that I never joined Twitter. Just, that's the last thing I need. I'm already on Facebook, which is terrible.

I've been enjoying Instagram, I have to say. That seems like a pretty nice crowd.

SPEAKER_2 (2:51)

Totally different place.

Josh Clark (2:53)

Yeah.

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (2:54)

But, you know, we're talking about all this because we're talking about Sacagawea.

Josh Clark (2:58)

Yes, we are. Yeah, naturally. Who would probably eschew both Instagram and Twitter because she seems like a pretty solid human being.

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (3:08)

She'd be like, don't at me.

Josh Clark (3:10)

That's right. So, just to get this done out of the gate. Again, I thought that her name was pronounced Sacagawea. I am not like in the minority in the United States, at least, because that's how we were raised to say her name. Fortunately, we have such things as historians and people who listen to Native Americans who have been told over the years. Now, it's not Sacagawea, it's Sacacawaga, right? There's one pronunciation of it, but it's not J, it's G.

And we've started to pronounce her name correctly. You say it way better than me, so why don't you take it?

Charles "Chuck" W. Bryant (3:51)

Well, gosh, this is the third time now we're on this. I've seen different things from Sacagawea to Sacagawea. I think in Clark's journal, William Clark, that is of Lewis and Clark fame, spelled it S-A-H-K-A-H, emphasis on that, G-A-R-W-E-A, so Sacagawea, or Sacagawea. But then the Shoshone, which is a Native American tribe that, well, we'll get to the importance there.